Austria

Austria state institutions Monarchy and royalism 1747–1792 ○ Died of illness in Vienna while reigning

Holy Roman Emperor who co-signed the Declaration of Pillnitz

On 27 August 1791 he and the King of Prussia signed the Declaration of Pillnitz, saying they would act together for the French king if the other powers joined them.

A son of Maria Theresa and brother of Marie Antoinette, he ruled Tuscany as a reforming grand duke from 1765 and abolished the death penalty and torture there in 1786. He succeeded his brother Joseph II as emperor in 1790. In August 1791 at Pillnitz he and Frederick William II declared that they would intervene in France only if the other powers joined them. Historians have called it a formality, since Leopold knew Russia and Britain would not act, but it contributed to the radicalisation of the revolutionary movement in France. He died of pneumonia in Vienna on 1 March 1792, shortly before France declared war.

Frankfurt National Assembly (1848–1849) Monarchy and royalism 1782–1859 ○ Natural causes

Habsburg archduke and moderniser of Styria whom the Frankfurt Parliament elected Regent of the Empire in 1848

Born in Florence in 1782, a son of Grand Duke Leopold of Tuscany (later Emperor Leopold II), he was given command of the Austrian army at eighteen in 1800 and was beaten at Hohenlinden, and in 1809 he led the army of Inner Austria in Italy. Sidelined under Metternich, he became the great moderniser of Styria, founding the Joanneum in Graz, and his morganatic marriage to a postmaster's daughter made him popular. When the imperial court fled Vienna in 1848 he was named the emperor's deputy and opened the Diet. On 29 June 1848 the Frankfurt Parliament elected him Regent of the Empire at the head of the Provisional Central Power, but the member states denied it command of their armies and his office carried little power. He was allowed to resign only on 20 December 1849. He later served as mayor of Stainz and died in Graz in 1859.

Austria state institutions Monarchy and royalism 1747–1792 ○ Died of illness in Vienna while reigning

Holy Roman Emperor who co-signed the Declaration of Pillnitz

On 27 August 1791 he and the King of Prussia signed the Declaration of Pillnitz, saying they would act together for the French king if the other powers joined them.

A son of Maria Theresa and brother of Marie Antoinette, he ruled Tuscany as a reforming grand duke from 1765 and abolished the death penalty and torture there in 1786. He succeeded his brother Joseph II as emperor in 1790. In August 1791 at Pillnitz he and Frederick William II declared that they would intervene in France only if the other powers joined them. Historians have called it a formality, since Leopold knew Russia and Britain would not act, but it contributed to the radicalisation of the revolutionary movement in France. He died of pneumonia in Vienna on 1 March 1792, shortly before France declared war.

Frankfurt National Assembly (1848–1849) Monarchy and royalism 1782–1859 ○ Natural causes

Habsburg archduke and moderniser of Styria whom the Frankfurt Parliament elected Regent of the Empire in 1848

Born in Florence in 1782, a son of Grand Duke Leopold of Tuscany (later Emperor Leopold II), he was given command of the Austrian army at eighteen in 1800 and was beaten at Hohenlinden, and in 1809 he led the army of Inner Austria in Italy. Sidelined under Metternich, he became the great moderniser of Styria, founding the Joanneum in Graz, and his morganatic marriage to a postmaster's daughter made him popular. When the imperial court fled Vienna in 1848 he was named the emperor's deputy and opened the Diet. On 29 June 1848 the Frankfurt Parliament elected him Regent of the Empire at the head of the Provisional Central Power, but the member states denied it command of their armies and his office carried little power. He was allowed to resign only on 20 December 1849. He later served as mayor of Stainz and died in Graz in 1859.

Austria state institutions Monarchy and royalism 1793–1875 ○ Natural causes

Epileptic Austrian emperor whose regency council governed for him until he abdicated to his nephew Franz Joseph in 1848

Born in 1793 the eldest son of Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor, to parents who were double first cousins, he had hydrocephalus, epilepsy and a speech impediment. He succeeded his father in 1835 as Emperor of Austria and King of Hungary (as Ferdinand V), but with as many as twenty seizures a day he could not rule effectively, and a regency council of Archduke Louis, Count Kolowrat and Prince Metternich steered the government. From 1835 to July 1848 he was also president of the German Confederation. After the revolutions of 1848 Prince Felix of Schwarzenberg persuaded him to abdicate, and on 2 December 1848 he gave up the throne to his nephew Franz Joseph. He spent the rest of his life at Prague Castle and died in 1875. His passive but well-meaning character earned him the sobriquet "the Benign".